1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a computer controlled data terminal system and more particularly to an interactive data terminal system including portable radio data terminals which are used in merchandising operations and interface by radio transmissions with a central data processing unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The general acceptance of computers has brought about profound advances to retail business operations. Cash registers have been enhanced with digital scales and with bar code readers. The enhanced cash registers have been coupled to computers thus becoming sophisticated and efficiently functioning point-of-sales equipment. The enhancements have resulted in a reduction of time requirements for processing customers at check-out counters in comparison with those of more traditional check-out procedures of the recent past.
Beyond applications increasing efficiency at the check-out counter, the power of computers has been applied to track sales trends and to generate real-time data for re-stocking merchandise inventories. A tight control over inventories allows inventory margins to be optimized with resulting inventory cost optimization.
Inventory stock control further has benefited from the portability of well-known hand-held data terminals which are coupled via radio frequency transmissions into a communications network coupled to a central computer. Such hand-held data terminals equipped with bar code scanners are used to update shelf inventory data and match existing shelf items with computer back-up and pricing information. Systems using such hand-held data terminals are currently in wide-spread use in retail stores because of their convenience in providing input of inventory data directly from stock areas to the computer, thereby replacing tedious inventory list comparisons with streamlined scanner counts and computerized comparisons.
The concept of hand-held order terminals has also been disclosed with respect to restaurant or retail vending apparatus in which a portable data terminal is carried by a waiter or order taker. The portable terminal can be paged from a customer station, such as a restaurant table, to allow a customer to call the waiter assigned to that table. The waiter then uses the unit to take the order of the customer and transfers the completed order by radio link to an order processing station in the kitchen of the restaurant and to a central processing station. The central processing station is directly connected to a cash register. Thus, when the customer is ready to leave, the customer's bill has already been processed by the central processing station and is available at the cash register.
The latter system pre-compiles the bill for services rendered to a customer, thereby reducing a typical delay at the check-out counter. Other systems seek to reduce delays at check-out counters by bar code reading to key information on articles purchased into the cash register and to permit the computer to provide the pricing and total billing information. However, in spite of these recent advancements in the art, there will be a continued need for detailed attention to identify and record individual customer purchases. The store needs records of purchases to correctly charge a customer's account, and the customer needs a record of purchases for item return or warranty purposes, for example. Hence waiting lines at check-out counters during peak hours are still part of our lifestyles. There continues to exist a need to further improve the efficiencies of retail business systems.